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256
1911]
Acting on your instructions I investigated the complaints made and reported to you
in detail; after which you caused the Government Departments concerned and various Public
Health authorities to be informed of the nature and urgency of the matter. My report
summarized the conditions found as constituting a danger to the health of the community
and likely to seriously affect the economic status of the trade, owing to the low wages
paid for the work.
A question asked in the House of Commons in reference to this report was answered
by the Secretary of State in such a manner as to discredit the correctness of certain technicalities,
while fully admitting the accuracy of the main issues involved. Upon this the
trades concerned protested against the action of the Islington Public Health Committee in
giving publicity to the affair. Acting on your further instructions I verified the statements made
in the original report and was able to submit to you evidence which conclusively proved its
accuracy both technically and generally. My second report embodying this evidence was duly
forwarded to the State Departments and the Home Office.
Perhaps the best justification of the action taken lies in the issue of an Order by
H.M. Secretary of State, which has added the making of confectionery with all its branches
to the trades scheduled for notification.
It is difficult to understand why all employers of outworkers are not compelled to
notify their employees. As an instance, the trades of cigar and cigarette making, of book
folding and binding are still exempt, though it is known that they are carried on as
domiciliary occupations. In the event of infectious disease occurring on the premises both
these trades would prove fruitful sources of dissemination. The experience of the past
year proves that where work is done the ordinary notification is futile for public protection.
Fear of loss of employment prompts a denial, and it is only the foreknowledge given by
the outworkers' register that compels admission of the truth The following cases illustrate
the facts. Six dozen ties were returned to the factory without disinfection from a house where
a case of scarlet fever had occurred; and the Inspector was told that there was no work on
the premises." In another house there were fifteen dozen ties, in another two infants' cots,
in another six mantles, with others for which lack of space forbids detail. In all of them the
presence of work was distinctly negatived on the District Inspector's enquiries.
Fortunately the register of outworkers enabled me in every case to trace the goods
and have them disinfected. Hut in trades such as those mentioned, which are not scheduled,
what protection is there for the public health under similar circumstances?
In conjunction with this question is the importance of the regulation which compels
the notification of consumption. The following instance is an illustration of the need for
making this notification more than a mere statistical record :—
A homeworker (boxmaker), suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs, was discharged
from the Infirmary as being sufficiently recovered to partly resume ???er work. She occupied
a second floor back room, about twelve feet by nine, with her daughter, a girl of fourteen;
they had one small bed, in which they both slept. The poor woman's weakness only permitted
her to work half the day, and the Guardians made her a small allowance to pay the
rent. There is therefore every probability of the girl contracting her mother's disease, for she
lives and sleeps in the closest possible proximity to her, nor is anything done to save her.